Water and Power Associates Informing the Public about Critical Water and Energy Issues facing Los Angeles and California

Introduction

The photographs on this page continue a wide-ranging look at Los Angeles beginning in the mid-1920s, a period of extraordinary growth and change. As the city expanded, new neighborhoods, boulevards, bridges, civic buildings and transportation systems reshaped the landscape. From the emerging Carthay Circle district near Wilshire and San Vicente boulevards to the construction of a new City Hall and Civic Center downtown, these images document a city building the infrastructure of a modern metropolis.

The photographs range across many parts of Los Angeles and many aspects of city life. Aerial views follow the development of neighborhoods and commercial districts, while other images document bridges, streetcars and roadways, early Hollywood and the motion-picture industry, wholesale markets, aviation, and the changing Civic Center. A particularly extensive series follows the construction and 1928 dedication of City Hall and the old Broadway City Hall it replaced. Another follows the extension of Spring Street through Fort Moore Hill and the transformation of the surrounding landscape.

Taken together, the photographs on this page provide more than a record of individual buildings and streets. They show Los Angeles continually rebuilding itself as it grew. Historic views and Then-and-Now comparisons reveal what disappeared, what survived, and how many familiar parts of the city emerged from a landscape that often looked very different less than a century ago.

Wilshire and San Vicente — A Landscape Transformed

In 1922, the area around Wilshire and San Vicente boulevards looked very different from the densely developed cityscape of today. Much of the surrounding land was still open, but Los Angeles was expanding rapidly westward and the area was about to undergo a major transformation.

That same year, developer J. Harvey McCarthy began developing Carthay Center on 136 acres south of Wilshire Boulevard. Planned as an upscale residential community, the development included distinctive streets, underground utilities and sites for a school, church, commercial center and eventually the Carthay Circle Theatre. A Pacific Electric streetcar extension provided transportation through the growing district.

The photographs below follow that transformation from several directions. Beginning with aerial views from 1922 and continuing through 1926 and 1930, they show streets, homes, public facilities and landmarks appearing across what had recently been open land. Then-and-Now and Before-and-After comparisons provide both the long view and a closer look at how much changed in only eight years.

Historical Notes

The San Vicente Boulevard seen here should not be confused with the older street of the same name running through Brentwood toward Santa Monica. This Mid-City San Vicente developed separately. The portion passing through Carthay Center was originally called Eulalia Boulevard and was renamed San Vicente Boulevard in 1929. Its distinctive diagonal course remains one of the most recognizable features of the neighborhood today.

Wilshire Boulevard had a different beginning. In 1895, developer Henry Gaylord Wilshire created a 120-foot-wide boulevard through a residential tract west of Westlake Park, today's MacArthur Park. He donated the original 1,200-foot roadway to the city on the condition that it bear his name and remain free of railroad lines and heavy commercial trucking. As Los Angeles expanded westward, separate streets and extensions were gradually connected to create the much longer Wilshire Boulevard familiar today.

Fairfax Avenue had originally been established as Crescent Avenue in 1888. The city renamed it Fairfax Avenue around 1912, a decade before this photograph was taken.

Historical Notes

This enhanced view is included to make details in the original 1922 photograph easier to see. The basic geography is particularly clear: Wilshire Boulevard crosses the open landscape, Eulalia Boulevard, later San Vicente Boulevard, follows its distinctive diagonal course, and Fairfax Avenue crosses the foreground.

The photograph also provides a closer look at how sparsely developed this part of Los Angeles remained in 1922. Roads and transportation corridors had already begun establishing the framework for future development, but much of the surrounding land was still open. Within only a few years, Carthay Center and adjoining development would substantially change this landscape.

Historical Notes

Although the surrounding landscape has been completely transformed, the basic street pattern established more than a century ago remains easy to recognize. Wilshire Boulevard continues west through the area, Fairfax Avenue runs north and south, and San Vicente Boulevard retains the distinctive diagonal alignment seen in the 1922 aerial.

The triangular parcels created by the intersection of these streets remain part of the area's distinctive geography. What was largely open land in 1922 is now part of a densely developed urban neighborhood, but the surviving street alignments still provide a direct link to the landscape visible in the earlier photograph.

Historical Notes

A century separates the two views, yet the underlying geography remains surprisingly recognizable. The streets that once crossed open land became permanent organizing features around which residential neighborhoods, commercial development and public facilities grew.

The comparison also demonstrates why historic street patterns can be so useful in identifying old photographs. Buildings may disappear and entire neighborhoods may be transformed, but major streets often survive, allowing the landscape of the past to be matched with the city of today.

Eight Years of Growth

The next photographs return to the early years of the transformation, this time looking east. Taken between 1922 and 1930, they show how quickly streets, homes, public facilities and landmarks filled what had recently been open land.

Historical Notes

Tenth Street was renamed Olympic Boulevard in 1932 in connection with the Summer Olympic Games held in Los Angeles that year.

The open land south of Tenth Street remained largely undeveloped longer than Carthay Center itself. Beginning in the 1930s, additional residential development would spread southward into areas now known as South Carthay and Carthay Square.

This east-facing view provides an especially useful starting point for the photographs that follow. Unlike the century-long comparison above, the next images show the transformation taking place within less than a decade.

Historical Notes

By 1926, the transformation of Carthay Center was well underway. J. Harvey McCarthy had begun developing the community in 1922, generally between Wilshire Boulevard, Fairfax Avenue, Tenth Street and Schumacher Drive. The neighborhood broke from the conventional Los Angeles street grid and became one of the city's early developments with underground utilities. Streets were named for figures associated with California history, and architectural controls encouraged individually designed homes.

The Carthay Circle Theatre opened in May 1926 and quickly became the development's best-known landmark. Its distinctive tower and later association with major Hollywood premieres made it one of the most recognizable movie palaces in Los Angeles. The theater eventually became so closely identified with the surrounding community that Carthay Center became known as Carthay Circle.

Comparing this photograph with the 1922 view makes the pace of development particularly clear. In only four years, streets had been laid out, residential blocks established and houses constructed across much of the previously open landscape.

Historical Notes

By 1930, the landscape surrounding Wilshire and San Vicente had been transformed. La Cienega Park had opened in 1928 with recreational facilities that included a swimming pool, tennis courts and playing fields. Across La Cienega Boulevard stood Beverly Hills' municipal water treatment plant, developed during the same period as the city expanded its own water system.

The photograph also shows how development had spread well beyond the original Carthay Center tract. What had been an isolated development surrounded by open land was becoming part of an increasingly continuous urban landscape extending westward from central Los Angeles.

Historical Notes

Few comparisons illustrate the speed of Los Angeles' westward growth during the 1920s more clearly. In 1922, much of the land surrounding Wilshire and San Vicente remained open. Eight years later, streets, homes, public facilities and the Carthay Circle Theatre occupied a landscape that had been largely undeveloped.

The transformation was part of a much larger period of growth across Los Angeles, but the surviving alignments of Wilshire, Fairfax and San Vicente make the change here particularly easy to see. The streets provide the reference points; nearly everything around them changed.

Historical Notes

The Carthay Circle Theatre was one of the most famous movie palaces of Hollywood's Golden Age. It opened at 6316 San Vicente Boulevard in 1926 and was considered to be developer J. Harvey McCarthy's most successful monument, a stroke of shrewd thinking that made a famous name of the newly developed Carthay residential district in the Mid-City West district of Los Angeles.

Historical Notes

Initially developed by Fox, it was called the Fox Carthay Circle Theater. The theater became better known than the development in which it was located, and this has led to confusion in the name of the area. The theater's name meant "the Circle Theater, by Fox, located in Carthay", but became incorrectly interpreted as "The Fox Theater, located in Carthay Circle." The misinterpretation has stuck, and now the region is more or less officially known as Carthay Circle, even as its theater namesake has been gone for half a century.

Historical Notes

Carthay Center Elementary School opened in 1924 to serve Carthay Center, a subdivision in mid-city Los Angeles planned by developer Harvey J. McCarthy. The school was located just opposite the famous Carthay Circle Theater, which hosted such dazzling movie premieres as "Snow White," "The Wizard of Oz," and "Gone with the Wind."  Although the theater was demolished in 1969, the beautiful school building was preserved and remains an architectural centerpiece of the neighborhood. ^

Historical Notes

The Carthay Circle Theater provided the "circle" for which Carthay Circle has come to be named. The auditorium itself was shaped in the form of a perfect circle, extended vertically into a cylinder, set inside a square that fleshed out the remainder of the building. McCarthy's development was called Carthay—an anglicized version of his last name. The theater was called the Circle Theater for its unique floor plan.*^

Historical Notes

Originally named Carthay Center, Carthay Circle was developed as an upscale residential district in 1922 by J. Harvey McCarthy, who founded the 136-acre, mainly Spanish Revival, community. No two homes are alike due to the rule that all homes had to be designed individually by an architect, and notable designers such as Irving Gill, Paul Williams and Robert Byrd contributed to the neighborhood. It was one of the first neighborhoods in Los Angeles to have underground utilities.*

Historical Notes

Also known as the Daniel O. McCarthy Pioneer Fountain, or the Miner's Statue, this work, located in Carthay Circle across from the Carthay Theatre, honors the memory of the California Pioneers of '49.' The plaque reads, "This fountain is a memorial to the gallant pioneers of '49 of whom Daniel O. McCarthy, patriot, miner, leader, was an outstanding example. He was born Raleigh, N.C., August 24, 1830. Died Los Angeles, August 13, 1919. Through his newspaper The American Flag, San Francisco, he helped preserve California to the Union. This long useful life is a heritage of which the Golden State is justly proud.” Dedicated by Ramona Parlor 109 NSGW. Signature on miner: Henry Lion 1924,25.*

Historical Notes

The Carthay Circle Theatre hosted the official premieres of some of the more notable films of the 1930s including: The Life of Emile Zola (1937), Romeo and Juliet (1936), Walt Disney's first animated feature length film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Gone with the Wind (1939), among many others.

For Disney's Fantasia (1940), the most elaborate audio system in use at the time, Fantasound, a pioneering stereophonic process, was installed at this theatre.^*

Historical Notes

The Carthay Circle Theatre was demolished in 1969. Today, two low-rise office buildings and a city park occupy its former site.

Click HERE to see more early views of the Carthay Circle Theatre.

Historical Notes

On November 2, 1927, city and county officials, together with Pacific Electric executives, gathered for the opening ceremony of the Pico Boulevard Viaduct to be used by the PE Red Cars. The new viaduct replaced a very dangerous, at-grade crossing of the line with Pico Blvd. There is a banner hanging on the bridge over Pico, one can only guess that the banner was touting the safety aspects of the new span.

Historical Notes

The importance of the great viaduct was short lived. After just 13 years as an important asset to the Santa Monica via Beverly Hills line, through service to Santa Monica was abandoned in about December of 1941. Thereafter, the viaduct served as a back door entry to the West Hollywood Car House and maintenance complex, and for rush hour service on the W. 16th Street local service.*

Historical Notes

After 23 years of service, the rail service using the span was abandoned at the same time as the Venice Short Line in September of 1950. The viaduct would stand, unused, for another 14 years. Then in 1964 the mighty span that could have lasted more the 100 years was bulldozed away with none of the pomp and circumstance as its opening some 37 years before.*

Los Angeles Terminal Produce Market

Seventh and Central — A Hub of Los Angeles' Wholesale Produce Trade

As Los Angeles grew rapidly during the early twentieth century, so did the need for larger facilities to handle the enormous quantities of fruits and vegetables moving through the city. Earlier wholesale produce markets had become increasingly crowded as growers, wholesalers and buyers competed for space in a rapidly expanding downtown.

Beginning in 1917 and 1918, a major new wholesale produce facility took shape at Seventh Street and Central Avenue as part of the larger Union Terminal development. The complex provided wholesalers with extensive market and warehouse space along with direct railroad access. Over the following years, additional warehouses and industrial buildings were constructed as the terminal expanded into what became known as Alameda Square.

The photographs below show both sides of this operation: the crowded open-air produce market where buyers and sellers conducted business and the massive warehouse and transportation complex that supported it.

Historical Notes

The aerial view illustrates the enormous scale of the Union Terminal development and its close relationship to Los Angeles' railroad network. The produce market occupied part of a much larger wholesale, warehouse and distribution complex extending between Central Avenue and Alameda Street.

Rail access was central to the operation. Produce arriving from agricultural regions could be received, sold and redistributed through the market, while the adjoining warehouses provided space for businesses involved in food, manufacturing and other wholesale trades. The complex eventually covered more than 30 acres and became known as Alameda Square.

Historical Notes

By the 1920s, the Terminal Market had become one of Los Angeles' busiest centers for wholesale produce. Growers and wholesalers brought fruits and vegetables into the market, where grocers, restaurant operators, peddlers and other buyers could purchase goods for distribution throughout the city.

The long market buildings flanking the central roadway contained produce dealers and commission merchants, while the broad space between them accommodated the increasing number of automobiles and trucks serving the market. The photograph provides a vivid picture of the scale and intensity of the daily produce trade.

Historical Notes

The Terminal Market traced its origins to the Los Angeles Marketing Company, which had operated earlier produce facilities elsewhere in the city. Needing more room, the company developed new facilities at Seventh Street and Central Avenue. The Wholesale Terminal Market formally opened in 1918. After financial difficulties, the property came under the ownership and management of the Los Angeles Union Terminal Company, a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Railroad.

Direct rail service was one of the market's major advantages, allowing produce to move efficiently between the market and destinations throughout the region and beyond. The Terminal Market was separate from the Los Angeles City Market at Ninth and San Pedro streets, although both became major centers of the city's wholesale produce trade.

Historical Notes

This photograph captures an important transition in Los Angeles transportation. Horse-drawn wagons had long been a familiar part of the city's produce trade, carrying fruits and vegetables between farms, markets and customers. During the 1910s and 1920s, automobiles and motor trucks increasingly took their place.

At the Terminal Market, the old and new transportation systems operated side by side for a time. The horse-drawn vehicle visible among the automobiles provides a reminder of how quickly Los Angeles was changing as motor vehicles became dominant in the movement of goods throughout the city.

Historical Notes

The produce market formed only one part of the much larger Union Terminal development. Massive reinforced-concrete warehouses provided space for wholesalers, manufacturers and distributors, while adjoining railroad tracks and loading areas allowed freight to move efficiently between rail cars, trucks and warehouse floors.

Architect John Parkinson designed major portions of the complex. The first large warehouse, completed in 1918, rose six stories and measured approximately 100 feet wide and 650 feet long. Additional buildings followed during the next several years, creating one of the largest concentrations of warehouse and distribution space in Los Angeles.

The Union Terminal complex was developed on a large tract formerly occupied by Pacific Electric Railway shops and yards. Pacific Electric exchanged the property for another site on East Sixth Street as plans moved forward for the new terminal development. Although the land had previously belonged to Pacific Electric, the completed terminal was served by Southern Pacific rail connections.

Historical Notes

This aerial view shows how the Terminal Produce Market fit within the much larger Union Terminal development. The produce market occupied the broad space between long market buildings, while the massive warehouses beyond provided space for wholesale, industrial and distribution businesses.

The arrangement brought different parts of the city's distribution system together in one complex. Produce could be bought and sold in the open market while the surrounding buildings and transportation facilities handled the storage and movement of goods. The photograph provides a useful overview of the relationship between the busy produce market and the warehouse complex that supported it.

Historical Notes

The roadway between the warehouses demonstrates how the Union Terminal complex was designed around the movement of freight. Buildings were arranged to provide access for trucks as well as railroad service, allowing goods to move efficiently through the warehouses and into the regional distribution system.

Bishop & Co., whose delivery truck can be seen in this photograph, was among the early tenants of the Union Terminal complex. Its presence provides a direct link between the businesses documented when the warehouses were new and the commercial activity captured in this photograph nearly two decades later.

Historical Notes

By the 1930s, the Terminal Market at Seventh and Central and the separate Los Angeles City Market at Ninth and San Pedro streets were major centers of Los Angeles' wholesale produce trade. The markets also reflected the diversity of Southern California agriculture and commerce. In 1936, an estimated 500 Japanese Americans worked at the Terminal Market, while approximately 700 worked at the City Market.

Much of the historic Union Terminal warehouse complex survives today as ROW DTLA, a 32-acre district of restaurants, shops, creative offices and event spaces. The site's connection with the produce trade also continues: the 7th Street Produce Market, a five-acre open-air wholesale market within the complex, remains a major hub for produce distribution throughout the region, carrying on a tradition that began here more than a century ago.

Historical Notes

The comparison shows how much of the original Union Terminal warehouse complex has survived nearly 90 years after the first photograph was taken. Built as part of the Terminal Market development, these large reinforced-concrete warehouses were designed to accommodate wholesalers, manufacturers and distributors, with roadways and railroad connections allowing goods to move efficiently through the complex.

Today, the historic warehouses form part of ROW DTLA, a 32-acre district of offices, restaurants, shops and other commercial spaces. Although the buildings have been renovated and adapted to new uses, their massive scale and industrial character remain clearly recognizable. The site's connection to its original purpose also continues nearby at the 7th Street Produce Market, a five-acre open-air wholesale market that remains a major produce distribution hub for the region.

Historical Notes

These views illustrate more than a century of change in the industrial district southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. In 1925, railroad tracks, freight facilities, warehouses and the massive gas holder dominated the foreground, reflecting the importance of rail transportation and industry to the city's economy.

By 2026, much of that landscape had disappeared or been transformed as Downtown expanded and transportation patterns changed. Much of the historic Union Terminal warehouse complex remains today as part of ROW DTLA, providing a physical link to the district's industrial past. Nearby, wholesale produce activity also continues at the 7th Street Produce Market, carrying on a tradition that began here more than a century ago.

Franklin Hills: The Babylon Set of D. W. Griffith's Intolerance

An Ancient City Rises in East Hollywood

In 1915 and 1916, filmmaker D. W. Griffith transformed vacant land near his Fine Arts studio in East Hollywood into ancient Babylon for Intolerance, one of the most ambitious productions of the silent-film era. Massive walls, monumental stairways, terraces, towers and elephant-topped columns rose above the surrounding neighborhood.

Released in 1916, Intolerance interwove four stories set in different periods of history: ancient Babylon, Judea at the time of Christ, sixteenth-century France and contemporary America. The Babylonian story provided the film's greatest spectacle. Thousands of extras filled the enormous courtyards and battle scenes, while Griffith and cinematographer G. W. "Billy" Bitzer used innovative camera techniques to capture a scale rarely seen in motion pictures up to that time.

The Babylon set occupied open land near the junction of Sunset and Hollywood boulevards and old Prospect Avenue, close to today's Vista Theatre and the southern edge of Franklin Hills. Portions of the enormous set remained standing for several years after filming, becoming a local landmark before disappearing in 1919. The Vista Theatre opened nearby in 1923, providing a present-day landmark for an area once dominated by Griffith's cinematic vision of ancient Babylon.

Historical Notes

The Babylon set was constructed for the most spectacular of the four stories interwoven in Intolerance. Contemporary motion-picture reporting described its principal walls as approximately 90 feet high. Monumental stairways, towers, terraces and enormous elephant-topped columns created the illusion of an ancient city on a scale rarely attempted in motion pictures up to that time.

The Babylonian sequences required an extraordinary number of performers and crew. Contemporary reports stated that approximately 3,000 extras were used on alternating days during filming, with 28 directors and players helping coordinate the action and nine cameras recording the scenes. During the battle sequences, roughly 2,000 performers on foot and in chariots attacked the walls.

Historical Notes

This photograph provides a rare look behind the spectacle, showing members of the construction crew responsible for turning an open Los Angeles property into Griffith's vision of ancient Babylon. Timber framing, plaster and other materials were used to create architectural forms that appeared monumental on screen while functioning as motion-picture scenery.

The finished set included enormous walls, stairways, platforms and decorative features capable of accommodating large numbers of performers. The availability of relatively undeveloped land near Griffith's Fine Arts studio made construction on this scale possible and allowed the production to create an outdoor environment that resembled a temporary city.

Historical Notes

The enormous courtyard became the visual centerpiece of the Babylonian story. Griffith staged elaborate celebrations and battle scenes here, filling the stairways, terraces and open spaces with thousands of performers. The architecture was intended to create a dramatic cinematic vision of the ancient city rather than reproduce any single Babylonian structure.

Griffith and cinematographer G. W. "Billy" Bitzer used the set's enormous scale to create some of the film's most celebrated images. One famous sequence begins high above the courtyard and moves toward the activity below, gradually revealing the vast architecture and crowds. The shot became an early demonstration of how camera movement could be used to establish scale and draw audiences into a scene.

The imagery had an unusual architectural afterlife. When the Hollywood and Highland complex opened in 2001, its central courtyard incorporated monumental arches and elephant figures inspired by the Babylon set from Intolerance. Those features were later altered during redevelopment of the property.

Historical Notes

This early photograph strips away the finished illusion and shows the Babylon set taking shape as an enormous piece of outdoor stage construction. Wooden frameworks marked the future walls and towers, which would eventually be covered and decorated to create the appearance of massive ancient structures.

The set occupied vacant property opposite Griffith's Fine Arts studio on Sunset Boulevard. Historical photographs also document portions of the set at Prospect Avenue and Talmadge Street. The sprawling site was close to where the Vista Theatre stands today, making the theater a useful present-day landmark for locating the general area where Griffith's Babylon once dominated the landscape.

Historical Notes

Seen from the surrounding neighborhood, the Babylon set resembled a temporary city rising behind ordinary Los Angeles homes. Its immense walls, towers and construction framework dwarfed the nearby houses and demonstrated the extraordinary scale of Griffith's production.

Released in September 1916, Intolerance repeatedly shifted among four stories separated by centuries, linking them through the common theme of intolerance. Its unusual narrative structure and enormous scale helped make the film a landmark of silent cinema, although its initial commercial performance did not match the extraordinary success Griffith had achieved with The Birth of a Nation.

Historical Notes

The Babylon set was not immediately demolished after filming. Its enormous size made removal difficult and expensive, and the abandoned scenery remained visible for several years as it deteriorated. The towering remains became an unusual landmark and a reminder of the extraordinary scale of Griffith's production.

The set was finally removed in 1919. That same year Griffith released The Fall of Babylon, an expanded version of the Babylonian story assembled using footage from Intolerance. As the surrounding neighborhood continued to develop, the physical remains of Griffith's ancient city disappeared.

The Vista Theatre opened nearby in 1923 and today provides a familiar landmark for the area associated with the former set. Nothing remains of Griffith's Babylon itself, but photographs of its towering walls, elephants and enormous crowds have become enduring images of early Hollywood and of an era when filmmakers could build an entire ancient city on open land in Los Angeles.

Historical Notes

Opening in 1915 as The Vitagraph Studio, the original silent film plant included two daylight film stages, support buildings and many exterior film sets. In 1925, Vitagraph's founder Albert Smith sold the company to the Warner brothers. In 1927, the facility became The Warner East Hollywood Annex and was used for many large-scale films. Here, in 1927, Warner Bros. shot portions of the historical first sound film, The Jazz Singer, using the Vitaphone process which synchronized audio and picture.

In 1948, the property was sold to the newly formed American Broadcasting Company, and the film lot was transitioned into the new world of television as the ABC Television Center.

In 1996, ABC became part of The Walt Disney Company, the origins of which trace back to its first studio in Silver Lake. As the television and film industry entered the next millennium, the lot was renamed The Prospect Studios.^*

Historical Notes

Franklin Hills is home to the Shakespeare Bridge, a small 1926 built bridge on Franklin Avenue east of Talmadge Street that links Franklin Avenue between two tall, steep hills. To the east of the bridge begins the Franklin Hills public stairway system, which provides pedestrian linkages among the curvy streets, a series of 14 staircases originally built in the 1920s to provide hillside homeowners pedestrian access to the trolley lines below.^*

John Marshall High School first opened its doors on January 26, 1931, with approximately twelve hundred students and forty-eight teachers. Joseph Sniffen, for whom the auditorium was named, served as the first Principal, while Hugh Boyd and Geraldine Keith acted as Marshall's first Vice-Principals. The football field was named in honor of Mr. Boyd, while the library was named for Mrs. Keith.^

Historical Notes

The ravine over which the bridge was built was once a perennial stream called Arroyo de la Sacatela.

Historical Notes

The Gothic-style Shakespeare Bridge was built in 1926 and designed by J.C. Wright of the City Engineer's Office. It is 30-feet wide and 230-feet long and is made of concrete.^

Historical Notes

As for why it’s called the Shakespeare Bridge, that seems to be a mystery. It was originally known as the Franklin Avenue Bridge, but the name changed at some point, with most information pointing to a neighborhood council-type decision.

Historical Notes

The Shakespeare Bridge begins on Franklin Ave at St George Street, a little less than a mile east of Vermont Street in the Los Feliz or Franklin Hills area. Built in 1926

Historical Notes

The bridge was rebuilt in 1998 after the Northridge earthquake due to concerns that the structure would not be stable in the even of an earthquake in the Franklin Hills area. As part of the seismic retrofit, the deck, sidewalks, and railings were removed and reconstructed using reinforced concrete. The expansion joints were also removed, so the bridge deck is now a one-piece structural diaphragm built to transfer all seismic forces into the abutment walls at either end of the bridge. All of the rebuilding was done in an effort to preserve the historic appearance of the bridge.^

Historical Notes

In 1974, the Shakespeare Bridge was designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #126 (Click HERE to see complete listing).

Historical Notes

The Fourth St. and Lorena St. Bridge was constructed in 1927-28 as a complex grade separation that assured the flow of traffic from Fourth Street downtown to East Los Angeles. The bridge is noted as an engineering achievement in catenary arch, reinforced concrete, bridge construction.^*#

Historical Notes

In 1983, the Fourth and Lorena Street Bridge was dedicated LA Historic-Cultural Monument No. 265 (Click HERE to see complete listing).

Historical Notes

The 4th and Lorena Street Bridge-Built in 1928, is one of the few remaining catenary, or curved, arch bridges in the city. It is one of the most graceful of the open spandrel arch bridges designed in 1920’s.

Dayton Avenue Bridge (later Riverside-Figueroa Bridge)

Historical Notes

Dayton Avenue (later N. Figueroa Street) has had four different bridges. The Riverside Drive-Dayton Avenue Bridge, first built in 1903, was replaced with a concrete one completed in 1928. In 1938, after heavy floods and the Elysian Park landslide, the Army Corps of Engineers built a replacement bridge with steel trussing, known as the Riverside Drive Bridge (Riverside-Figueroa Bridge). In 2008 eleven bridges were designated as Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments including the Riverside-Figueroa Bridge #908, however, because of seismic safety issues, the bridge was once again replaced by a newer one in 2014.

Historical Notes

This concrete bridge replaced the earlier Dayton Avenue Bridge built in 1903. The new bridge was later renamed the Riverside Drive-Dayton Avenue Bridge, alternately called the Riverside Drive-Figueroa Bridge, when Dayton Avenue was renamed North Figueroa as a continuation of original Figueroa Street.**^**

Historical Notes

The N. Figueroa Street Bridge opened in 1937, providing a wider and direct Los Angeles River crossing than the Dayton Avenue Bridge. After passing over the river and San Fernando Road, it tied into Dayton Avenue (Figueroa Street) south of Avenue 26.^*

Historical Notes

The new (3rd) Dayton Avenue Bridge will now link Riverside Drive and San Fernando Road with a reach of about 700 feet, including approaches, over the Los Angeles River.  It will have one 238-foot steel span directly over the river.

Historical Notes

The new Dayton Avenue Bridge was built, by the Army Corps of Engineers. Though the deck of the bridge retains more-or-less the character of the earlier bridge, the graceful concrete arch below is replaced by a steel truss span.

Historical Notes

In 2008, the Riverside-Figueroa Bridge that links Cypress Park and Elysian Valley was designated Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument No. 908.

Historical Notes

Due to safety concerns regarding the seismic fitness of the Riverside-Figueroa Bridge, the City Council decided it needed to be replaced. In 2011, the city began construction on the widened replacement bridge seen above.

Historical Notes

There was nearly a year-long effort to save the concrete and metal-truss  bridge for use as a public space similar to the Hi Line in NY. However, the courts ruled in favor of the city and the last steel truss bridge to span the LA River would be demolished (2014).

Historical Notes

The Muller family is one of Hollywood’s pioneers. Jacob Muller came to Hollywood in 1893, establishing the first meat market in Hollywood, across from the present Cinerama Dome on Sunset Boulevard. He sold the market in 1907 and established the first ice company in Hollywood, selling that business in 1913. The family’s original house was built Sunset Boulevard at Ivar. This site later became the location of  the RCA Building, built by the Muller Family in 1963. (currently the Los Angeles Film School Building).

Jacob Muller’s sons, Walter and Frank, opened the Muller Bros. Service Station in 1920.^*^*

Click HERE to see more Early LA Gas Stations.

Historical Notes

The Muller Brothers Service Station was located on the south side of Sunset Boulevard on 4 acres, where the Cinerama Dome Theater is now located. Opened in 1920 by the Muller brothers, Walter and Frank, this became the largest service station in the world (including a large automobile supply center), employing 120 people by 1937. Celebrities, from Rudolph Valentino to Clark Gable, came by regularly to get gas or just work on their cars. In 1963 the site was sold for the Cinerama Dome Theatre, and, at that time, an eventual hotel.^*^*

Click HERE to see more in Early Views of Hollywood (1920 +).

Historical Notes

In the late 1930s the 1.5-mile stretch of Wilshire Boulevard between Fairfax and Highland Avenues would be named the Miracle Mile.

Click HERE to see more Early Views of the "Miracle Mile".

Historical Notes

In the distance can be seen the construction of Immanuel Presbyterian Church.  This was their second location. The first one was located on the SE corner of Figueroa and Olympic.

Modeled after French Gothic cathedrals, the Immanuel Presbyterian Church was designed by architect Chauncey Skilling.  The building's stone-clad corner tower soars 205 feet above Wilshire, supported by a steel frame that allows for a strikingly spacious interior.

Historical Notes

Wilshire Boulevard was designated by The Octagon Museum of the American Architectural Foundation as one of the 'Grand American Avenues' was decorated with this Wilshire Special pole and lantern for nearly six miles of its length. Approximately 100 poles still remain over the distance of about one-and-a-half miles. The original lanterns are solid bronze and stand 7½ feet tall from the base of the lantern to the top of the finial.^^#

Historical Notes

Click HERE to see more in Early Los Angeles Street Lights

Historical Notes

KFWB's history goes back to 1925, when it was launched by Sam Warner, a co-founder of Warner Brothers. The station launched the careers of such stars as Ronald Reagan and Bing Crosby. The station was the first to broadcast the annual Rose Parade in Pasadena.

The original KFWB studios and transmitter location were at the Warner Bros. Studios, which is now KTLA, at 5800 Sunset Boulevard. One of the two original towers still stands prominently out front. Due to RF interference getting into the movie studio's "talkies" sound equipment, the transmitter was moved in 1928 to the roof of the Warner Theater, now the Hollywood Pacific Theatre, at 6423 Hollywood Blvd. Eventually the studios were also moved to the Warner Theater. Those two towers are still there, as well.^*

Construction of Los Angeles City Hall

Los Angeles City Hall rose between 1926 and 1928 at one of the most historically significant locations in the city. The triangular site at Main, Spring and Temple streets had been associated with merchant and early Los Angeles developer Jonathan Temple and the Temple Block for much of the nineteenth century, when the area was at the center of the city's commercial and civic life.

By the 1920s, Los Angeles had grown into a major American city and needed a larger center of government. Architects John Parkinson, John C. Austin and Albert C. Martin collaborated on the new City Hall, designing a 28-story building whose tower would rise far above the surrounding downtown skyline.

The photographs below document that transformation from several directions. They show the excavation and steel framework, the last days of Temple Block, the changing Civic Center skyline and finally the completed City Hall, dedicated on April 26, 1928. For a brief period, nineteenth-century Los Angeles and the city's new monumental Civic Center stood side by side.

Historical Notes

Construction of the new City Hall began in 1926 on the triangular site bounded by Spring, Main and Temple streets. The project was part of a broader effort to create a more unified Civic Center for a city whose population and municipal government had expanded rapidly during the early twentieth century.

Architects John Parkinson, John C. Austin and Albert C. Martin collaborated on the project. The resulting 28-story building combined monumental architecture with modern steel-frame and reinforced-concrete construction. Its tower was permitted to rise well above the height normally allowed for Los Angeles buildings, ensuring that City Hall would dominate the city's skyline.

Historical Notes

The photograph captures a Civic Center in transition. The old County Courthouse, completed in 1891, still dominated nearby Poundcake Hill, while the Hall of Justice represented a newer generation of government buildings. Within months, the rising City Hall tower would become the dominant landmark among them.

The location was especially significant. For generations, the area around Temple, Main and Spring streets had been closely associated with the commercial and governmental development of Los Angeles. Building the new City Hall here placed the modern seat of municipal government close to the historic center of the early city.

Historical Notes

This photograph captures two eras of Los Angeles in the same frame. The steel skeleton of the new City Hall rises beside Temple Block, one of the oldest and most historically important commercial areas in the city.

Temple Block had developed through several stages beginning in the nineteenth century and for decades stood at the heart of Los Angeles' business and professional district. By 1927, however, the surrounding city had changed dramatically. Its remaining buildings were demolished as construction of the new Civic Center moved forward.

The contrast between the surviving nineteenth-century structures and the enormous modern steel frame makes this one of the clearest visual records of Los Angeles replacing its early commercial core with a monumental twentieth-century Civic Center.

Historical Notes

The area around the meeting point of Spring, Main and Temple streets was closely associated with merchant Jonathan Temple, who settled in Los Angeles in 1828 and became one of the pueblo's most successful early businessmen. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, buildings bearing the Temple name helped establish the area as an important center of commerce and professional activity.

Temple constructed the Market House nearby in 1859. Originally intended to contain market stalls and other commercial uses, it was soon adapted for government purposes and served as the Los Angeles County Courthouse from 1861 until 1891. Temple Street, which ran west from this important early commercial district, still carries Jonathan Temple's name.

By the mid-1920s, the surviving Temple Block buildings represented an earlier scale and era of downtown development. Their demolition cleared the way for the new Civic Center and one of the city's most recognizable landmarks.

Historical Notes

Few photographs illustrate the transformation of downtown Los Angeles as clearly as this one. In the foreground stands a remnant of the nineteenth-century city; immediately behind it rises the steel framework of the building that would symbolize twentieth-century Los Angeles.

Temple Block had once occupied a commanding position in the small city's commercial center. By 1927, Los Angeles had grown around and far beyond it. Its demolition was both a physical and symbolic transition: one of the landmarks of early Los Angeles disappeared while the city's new governmental landmark rose in its place.

Historical Notes

Arcadia Street ran for only one block between Main and Los Angeles streets and was named for Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker, one of the most prominent women in nineteenth-century Southern California.

Her two husbands were closely associated with major buildings along the street. Abel Stearns built the Arcadia Block, while Robert Symington Baker later constructed the Baker Block on the site of the former Stearns residence. Baker was also one of the founders of Santa Monica.

With City Hall rising nearby, this older collection of streets and buildings was increasingly surrounded by the new governmental center taking shape around Temple Street.

Historical Notes

This unusual photograph provides a dramatic sense of the height reached by City Hall's steel framework during construction. Rather than simply documenting the building process, the photographer used the exposed girder and the stunt man's precarious-looking pose to emphasize the scale of the new tower rising above the surrounding city.

The view also provides an unusual perspective on the older Civic Center below. The Los Angeles County Jail occupies the northeast corner of Spring and Temple streets, while the County Courthouse stands across Temple Street at the southwest corner. Within a few years, City Hall would become the dominant landmark in an area already crowded with county and municipal government buildings.

Historical Notes

This photograph captures several generations of Los Angeles government buildings in a single view. The County Courthouse, completed in 1891, stands between the newer Hall of Justice and Hall of Records, while the steel framework of City Hall rises behind them.

As construction progressed, City Hall began to reshape the Civic Center skyline. Buildings that had previously dominated the area were increasingly overshadowed by the new 28-story tower, which would become the visual center of municipal government in Los Angeles.

Historical Notes

Seen from Hill Street, the scale of the new City Hall becomes especially apparent. Its steel frame rises well above the lower buildings surrounding the Civic Center, providing an early indication of how dramatically the completed tower would change the downtown skyline.

Construction relied on a modern structural framework that allowed the building to reach a height unusual for Los Angeles at the time. Most buildings in the city were limited to 150 feet, while City Hall was permitted to rise far higher, making it an immediate landmark even before its exterior was completed.

Historical Notes

By this stage of construction, the basic shape of City Hall was clearly visible. The completed steel skeleton defined the broad lower portion of the building and the stepped tower that would become one of the most recognizable features of the Los Angeles skyline.

The new building rose 28 stories and approximately 450 feet above the Civic Center. Its height set it apart from nearly every other building in Los Angeles and reflected the city's desire to create a government headquarters that would serve not only a practical purpose but also as a civic landmark.

Historical Notes

As the exterior walls and architectural details were added, the exposed steel skeleton gradually assumed the familiar appearance of City Hall. The building combined a broad monumental base with a tall central tower, giving it a distinctive silhouette visible from many parts of the city.

Architects John Parkinson, John C. Austin and Albert C. Martin collaborated on the design. Rather than following a single historical style, the building incorporated several architectural influences while creating a form intended to convey permanence and civic importance.

Historical Notes

By the end of 1927, the transformation of the Civic Center was unmistakable. City Hall's tower now dominated buildings that only a few years earlier had defined the governmental center of Los Angeles.

The photograph is particularly valuable because several generations of civic architecture appear together: the nineteenth-century County Courthouse, the early twentieth-century Hall of Records, the newer Hall of Justice and, behind them all, the nearly completed City Hall. Much of this older Civic Center would disappear during later redevelopment.

Historical Notes

By early 1928, City Hall's exterior was largely complete. Its 28-story tower created a new focal point for downtown Los Angeles and announced the emergence of a more centralized Civic Center around the historic Temple Street area.

The building represented the ambitions of a city experiencing extraordinary growth. Los Angeles had expanded enormously during the first decades of the twentieth century, and the new City Hall was intended not merely as office space but as a monumental symbol of municipal government and the city's increasing national importance.

Historical Notes

The distinctive upper portion of City Hall's tower is commonly associated with the form of the ancient Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Architects John Parkinson, John C. Austin and Albert C. Martin collaborated on the design of the building.

City Hall quickly became one of the most recognizable symbols of Los Angeles. Since 1940, an image of the building has appeared on Los Angeles Police Department badges, further establishing its tower as an architectural symbol closely identified with the city.

Historical Notes

The dedication of City Hall on April 26, 1928, was one of the largest civic celebrations Los Angeles had staged. Approximately 32,000 participants marched in the parade, accompanied by 34 bands and 150 floats, while thousands of spectators crowded the surrounding streets.

Hollywood played a prominent role in the festivities. Sid Grauman oversaw the celebration, film producer Joseph Schenck served as master of ceremonies, and Mayor George E. Cryer and San Francisco Mayor James Rolph Jr. addressed the gathering. Irving Berlin was among the performers.

That evening, President Calvin Coolidge pressed a telegraph key at the White House in Washington, sending a signal across the country that activated the Lindbergh Beacon atop City Hall.

Historical Notes

The dedication marked the culmination of a project intended to give rapidly growing Los Angeles a government building equal to its ambitions. The celebration brought together municipal employees, military units, civic organizations, performers and thousands of residents for speeches, music, a massive parade and other festivities.

The new City Hall was more than a government office building. Rising from an area closely associated with the city's early commercial and civic history, its tower became a powerful symbol of Los Angeles' transformation from a nineteenth-century town into a twentieth-century metropolis.

City Hall — The Old and the New

Los Angeles completed its third City Hall in 1888 on Broadway between Second and Third streets. Designed by architect Solomon Irmscher Haas in the Romanesque Revival style, the three-story building stood at 228–238 South Broadway and was topped by a 150-foot campanile. It opened for municipal business in 1889 and served as the seat of city government for nearly four decades.

By the 1920s, Los Angeles had grown far beyond the city the Broadway building had been designed to serve. The city's population had increased from about 50,000 in 1890 to 577,000 in 1920 and would surpass 1.2 million by 1930. Its territory and municipal responsibilities had expanded as well, creating the need for a much larger seat of government.

That new City Hall rose between 1926 and 1928 as the centerpiece of a developing Civic Center. Ground was broken on March 4, 1926, and the building was dedicated on April 26, 1928. Once city offices moved into their new home, the old Broadway building stood for several more months before being demolished in 1929. The two photographs below capture that transition — one generation of Los Angeles city government giving way to the next.

Historical Notes

Los Angeles' third City Hall was completed in 1888 at 228–238 South Broadway and opened for municipal business in 1889. Designed by architect Solomon Irmscher Haas in the Romanesque Revival style, the three-story building was constructed primarily of red and brown brick and topped by a 150-foot campanile that made it a prominent feature of the late nineteenth-century downtown skyline.

The timing of its construction coincided with one of the city's first great periods of growth. Los Angeles had about 50,000 residents by 1890. By 1920, the population had reached 577,000, and it would surpass 1.2 million by 1930. As the city expanded geographically and municipal responsibilities increased, the Broadway building could no longer adequately accommodate city government.

Plans eventually called for a much larger City Hall several blocks to the northeast as part of a developing Civic Center. Construction began in 1926, meaning that when this photograph was taken in 1925, the Broadway building was already nearing the end of its years as Los Angeles' seat of municipal government.

Historical Notes

The new City Hall was dedicated on April 26, 1928, as part of a three-day civic celebration attended by thousands of people. One of the most memorable moments came that evening when President Calvin Coolidge, from the White House in Washington, pressed a button that activated the Lindbergh Beacon atop the new City Hall tower.

Once municipal offices completed their move, the old Broadway City Hall stood vacant for several months. In January 1929, the city awarded a contract for its demolition and arranged for the sale of furnishings, fixtures and other contents. Workers then began dismantling the building that had served Los Angeles for nearly four decades.

The photograph provides a fitting conclusion to the story. In the foreground, the old City Hall is disappearing; behind it stands its 454-foot replacement, then the tallest building in Los Angeles. The two structures represented very different periods in the city's history — one built for the growing town of the late nineteenth century, the other for the metropolis Los Angeles had become.

For a brief moment, both generations of Los Angeles civic architecture shared the same skyline. Then the old gave way to the new.

Click HERE to see more on the 1888-built City Hall.

Click HERE to see more on the 1928-built City Hall

Spring Street Extension: Temple Street to Sunset Boulevard

Cutting Through Fort Moore Hill

When Los Angeles City Hall opened in 1928, it stood beside a newly realigned section of Spring Street. Just one block north, however, Spring Street still came to an abrupt end at Temple Street. The old Los Angeles County Jail stood near the end of the roadway, while the steep southern slope of Fort Moore Hill rose immediately beyond. Traffic heading north from the new Civic Center had to find another way around the hill to reach Sunset Boulevard and the neighborhoods beyond.

Beginning around 1930, Los Angeles cleared buildings and excavated the lower portion of Fort Moore Hill to push Spring Street straight north from Temple to Sunset Boulevard. The project removed the old County Jail, eliminated Justicia Street and displaced homes on the hillside as a broad new corridor was cut through the old neighborhood. Major construction was underway by 1931, with streetcar tracks installed along the new roadway. The Spring Street extension opened in June 1932, creating a direct north-south route through a landscape that only a few years earlier had been blocked by buildings and hillside.

The photographs below follow this transformation from the old dead end at Temple Street through demolition, grading and construction, and finally to modern views showing how thoroughly this part of Fort Moore Hill and the surrounding Civic Center were reshaped.

Historical Notes

This view shows the street pattern that existed shortly after completion of the new City Hall. Spring Street had already been realigned through the Civic Center, but it still ended at Temple Street. Near the end of the roadway stood the old Los Angeles County Jail, with the lower slope of Fort Moore Hill rising behind it.

Beyond are several prominent county buildings: the Hall of Records, completed in 1911; the Red Sandstone County Courthouse, completed in 1891; and the Hall of Justice, completed in 1925. These buildings illustrate how the new Civic Center was developing around an older street pattern that would soon undergo another major transformation.

Historical Notes

This wider view shows the obstacle facing anyone traveling north on Spring Street. The roadway stops at Temple Street, while older buildings and Fort Moore Hill occupy the area directly beyond. The recently completed Hall of Justice rises prominently in the background.

As automobile traffic increased and the Civic Center expanded, this dead end became increasingly impractical. Plans called for Spring Street to be extended north in a straight line toward Sunset Boulevard, requiring the removal of older structures and extensive excavation of the hillside.

Historical Notes

From street level, the problem is particularly clear. Spring Street runs directly into Temple Street, with the old County Jail blocking any continuation north. Behind it rises Fort Moore Hill, whose steep slope prevented any simple extension of the roadway.

Beginning around 1930, buildings in the path of the proposed extension were cleared and the lower portion of the hill was excavated. Within a few years, the scene shown here would be almost completely transformed as Spring Street was pushed north toward Sunset Boulevard.

Historical Notes

This colorized view provides another look at Spring Street shortly before the extension project transformed the area. At the time, Spring Street ended at Temple Street, with the old County Jail directly in its path and Fort Moore Hill rising behind it.

Within a few years, the jail and other buildings were removed and a portion of the hillside was excavated to extend Spring Street north to Sunset Boulevard. The project replaced the dead end seen here with a broad new roadway through what had been one of the oldest parts of Los Angeles.

Historical Notes

The dotted lines show the proposed route of Spring Street through the existing neighborhood north of Temple. The old County Jail stands directly in the path of the extension. Behind it was the earlier Hall of Justice, which would also be cleared. Justicia Street, an older roadway climbing Fort Moore Hill at left, would disappear as the hillside was cut back and the new street established.

The project was part of the continuing modernization of the Civic Center street system. Extending Spring Street to Sunset Boulevard would eliminate the dead end at Temple and provide a more direct connection between Downtown and the growing neighborhoods to the north and northeast.

Historical Notes

From this elevated viewpoint, the scale of the proposed project becomes easier to understand. The marked route passes through the old County Jail and continues into the lower slope of Fort Moore Hill, requiring both demolition and extensive grading.

The large Hall of Justice, completed only a few years earlier, stood outside the path of the extension and remained. The project was therefore not simply a matter of extending pavement. Engineers had to create a new roadway through an already developed area while physically reshaping the hillside immediately north of Temple Street.

Historical Notes

This map illustrates the first stage of Spring Street’s transformation. Construction of the new City Hall required the street pattern immediately around the building to be reorganized, shifting Spring Street east of its earlier alignment and bringing it into closer conformity with the developing Civic Center plan.

One visible reminder of the older street pattern was the Hall of Records, which stood at an angle to the later street grid. Once Spring Street had been realigned alongside City Hall, extending the straightened route north beyond Temple Street became the next major step in reorganizing traffic through the Civic Center.

Historical Notes

By 1931, the transformation was well underway. The old County Jail, the earlier Hall of Justice and other structures in the path had been removed, while construction crews excavated the lower portion of Fort Moore Hill to create a broad, relatively level roadway.

The project also affected residents who had lived on the hill for many years. Among them was longtime resident Fanny Wills, whose property became part of the larger Civic Center and Fort Moore Hill redevelopment. The removal of homes, older streets and portions of the hillside illustrates how extensively Los Angeles was willing to reshape the existing landscape to accommodate its growing transportation system.

Historical Notes

The new Spring Street cuts a straight path through what had previously been a combination of hillside, homes and smaller streets. Much of the lower portion of Fort Moore Hill was removed to provide the grade necessary for the roadway.

The extension opened in June 1932, providing a direct route from the Civic Center to Sunset Boulevard. Streetcar tracks were installed along the new corridor that same month, making Spring Street an important transportation link between Downtown and neighborhoods to the north.

Historical Notes

Looking south, the effect of the new alignment is particularly impressive. City Hall appears almost directly on the axis of Spring Street, creating a straight approach into the Civic Center where only a few years earlier a hillside and irregular network of streets had stood.

The streetcar tracks, overhead wires, traffic signals and ornamental streetlights show that the extension was designed as more than simply a roadway for automobiles. It became a fully developed transportation corridor connecting the Civic Center with the northern part of the city.

Historical Notes

The colorized view provides a closer sense of the new Spring Street corridor as work neared completion. Streetcar tracks had been laid in the roadway, overhead wires were being installed, and ornamental streetlights and traffic signals were already in place. The exposed slope of Fort Moore Hill at right shows how extensively the hillside had been cut back to make room for the extension.

Looking south toward the Civic Center, City Hall stands almost directly on the new street's axis. The extension would open in June 1932, completing the direct connection between Temple Street and Sunset Boulevard and replacing the hillside, buildings and older street pattern that had blocked Spring Street only a few years earlier.

Historical Notes

The 1928 photograph shows Spring Street ending abruptly at Temple Street, with the old County Jail and Fort Moore Hill preventing any continuation north. In the modern view, Spring Street follows the route created by the early 1930s extension and continues directly through the area once occupied by the jail and hillside.

Farther north, another major transportation project would transform the landscape again. Construction of the Hollywood Freeway cut through what remained of Fort Moore Hill, leaving little of the topography visible in the earlier photograph.

Historical Notes

The 1931 photograph shows the newly created Spring Street corridor while work was still being completed. The roadway remains largely unlandscaped, while City Hall rises prominently in the distance.

The modern photograph follows essentially the same alignment, but nearly everything surrounding it has changed. Freeway construction and later Civic Center redevelopment removed many of the buildings and much of the remaining hillside, while this portion of Sunset Boulevard was later renamed César E. Chávez Avenue.

Historical Notes

This modern aerial view makes the scale of the transformation particularly clear. The straight section of Spring Street between Temple Street and César E. Chávez Avenue follows the route established by the extension project of the early 1930s. What had once been a steep hillside crossed by smaller streets became a broad transportation corridor.

Later construction of the Hollywood Freeway brought another major round of excavation through Fort Moore Hill. Only remnants of the original hillside survive today, but the alignment of Spring Street remains as a lasting imprint of the massive Civic Center improvements that reshaped this part of Los Angeles during the early twentieth century.

Historical Notes

The old LA County Courthouse was demolished in 1936.

The Hall of Records stood until 1973.

Historical Notes

Although there are dozens upon dozens of buildings, for decades no building in Los Angeles was allowed to exceed the height of City Hall, until 1957. It remained the tallest building in California from 1928-1964, at 28 stories tall (450 feet).^

Historical Notes

The Central Library building was constructed between 1922 and 1926.

Originally named the Central Library, the building was first renamed in honor of the longtime president of the Board of Library Commissioners and President of the University of Southern California, Rufus B. von KleinSmid. The new wing of Central Library, completed in 1993, was named in honor of former mayor Tom Bradley. The complex (i.e., the original Goodhue building and the Bradley wing) was subsequently renamed in 2001 for former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, as the Richard Riordan Central Library.^*

Historical Notes

The College Theatre was so named for its proximity to the nearby State Normal School on the block that is currently the site of the Los Angeles Central Library. The theatre located at 441 S. Hill Street was built in 1911 and demolished in 1929. Today, it is a parking lot.^^*#

Historical Notes

*Olympic Boulevard was originally named 10th Street. In 1932, the entire length of the street, from East L.A. to Santa Monica, was renamed Olympic Boulevard for the Summer Olympics being held in Los Angeles that year.

Historical Notes

Built in 1925, Hotel Figueroa was the first hotel to be completely financed, owned and operated by women in the United States. The YWCA (Young Women’s Christian Association) hired architecture firm Stanton, Reed & Hibbard to design and build the hotel. The Spanish Colonial style of the hotel pays tribute to the city’s Spanish and Mexican heritage. Defining features include the elaborate coffered ceiling, sculpture columns, wrought iron finishes, and ornate floor tiles.^

Historical Notes

Originally the hotel only hosted travelling business women and their children. However, as effects of the Great Depression were becoming more severe, Hotel Figueroa started to accommodate men.^

Historical Notes

The Friday Morning Club (across the street from the Hotel Figueroa) was founded by abolitionist, suffragist, mother, and Los Angeles homemaker Caroline Severance in 1891, with 87 other women in the reading room of the Hollenbeck Hotel, then located at Second and Broadway. It became the largest women's club in California, with membership of over 1,800 women by the 1920s.  Click HERE to see more.

Historical Notes

Note the ornate dual-lamp streetlights that line both sides of Broadway. These were called "Broadway Specials". Click HERE to see more.

Historical Notes

Lang was the chief engineer of the station, which he founded in 1927 under the call sign of KRLO. He sold the station in February 1928 to Ernest J. Krause, who changed the call letters to fit his initials, KEJK. Just two months later, KEJK was sold to R.S. MacMillan Petroleum Company of Beverly Hills, which owned KEJK when this photo was taken. They would change the call letters on March 14, 1930, to KMPC to fit the company name.^

Historical Notes

The Zeppelin was a type of rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century. It was based on designs he had outlined in 1874 and detailed in 1893. His plans were reviewed by committee in 1894 and patented in the United States in 1899. Given the outstanding success of the Zeppelin design, the term zeppelin in casual use came to refer to all rigid airships.

Zeppelins were first flown commercially in 1910 by Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-AG (DELAG), the world's first airline in revenue service. By mid-1914, DELAG had carried over 34,000 passengers on over 1,500 flights. After the outbreak of World War I, the German military made extensive use of Zeppelins as bombers and scouts.^*

Historical Notes

In 1929, Graf Zeppelin made perhaps its most famous flight; a round-the-world voyage covering 21,2500 miles in five legs from Lakehurst to Friedrichshafen, Friedrichshafen to Tokyo, Tokyo to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Lakehurst, and then Lakehurst to Friedrichshafen again.^*

Historical Notes

In 1930, the Graf Zeppelin began regular transatlantic commercial flights. It had 20 sleeping berths for passengers and a crew of 36. Its first flight was in 1928, its last in 1937, after 590 total flights. The Graf Zeppelin was retired one month after the Hindenberg disaster.^*

Historical Notes

In 1927 Jack L. Maddux, an owner of a Los Angeles Ford and Lincoln car dealership, founded Maddux Air Lines. The airline’s inaugural flight was on September 22, 1927 when the airline’s Ford 4-AT Tri-motor carrying 12 passengers flew from San Diego to Los Angeles.  This flight was to a small dirt landing strip that would later become Los Angeles International Airport, then Mines Field, although the landing strip, called Inglewood Site, was not suitable for the airline, and Jack Maddux chose instead Rogers Airport, with improved facilities, and later Grand Central Airport in Glendale.

On August 26, 1929 a Maddux Tri-motor, along with other aircraft, escorted the famous LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin airship to Mines Field where it stopped during its around the world flight.

Among the famous aviators who were involved with Maddux were Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart. Maddux also had a publicity department that advertised the celebrities who flew with the airline. These included Will Rogers, who rode on the inaugural flight, and Hollywood actors Arthur Edmund Carewe and Dolores del Río.^*

Historical Notes

In 1928, the Los Angeles City Council selected 640 acres (1.00 sq. mile) in the southern part of Westchester as the site of a new airport for the city. The fields of wheat, barley and lima beans were converted into dirt landing strips without any terminal buildings. It was named Mines Field for William W. Mines, the real estate agent who arranged the deal.^*

Historical Notes

Mines Field was dedicated and opened as the official airport of Los Angeles in 1930, and the city purchased it to be a municipal airfield in 1937. The name was officially changed to Los Angeles Airport in 1941, and to Los Angeles International Airport in 1949. The main airline airports for Los Angeles had been Burbank Airport (then known as Union Air Terminal, and later Lockheed) and the Grand Central Airport in Glendale. By 1940 most airlines served Burbank only; in late 1946 most airline flights moved to LAX, but Burbank always retained a few.^*

Historical Notes

Reseda originated as a farm town named "Marian" (or "Rancho Marian") that appeared in 1912. Its namesake, Marian Otis Chandler, was the daughter of Los Angeles Times publisher Harrison Gray Otis, a director of the Los Angeles Suburban Homes Company. H J Whitley was the manager of the Los Angeles Suburban Home Company.

The Western Division of the Pacific Electric Railway 'Red Cars Line' expedited development after the Los Angeles Aqueduct brought water to the City of Los Angeles in 1913. Soon, thereafter, Marian would be annexed by the City.*^

Historical Notes

In 1920, Reseda was named after a fragrant North African yellow-dye plant, Reseda odorata, whose English name is mignonette and which grows in hot, dry climates—replaced Marian as a designation for a stop on the Pacific Electric interurban railway running along Sherman Way. The name "Reseda" was given first to a siding on a branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad in the south San Fernando Valley.*^

Historical Notes

Sunland and Tujunga were originally home to the Tongva people. In 1840 the area was part of the Rancho Tujunga Mexican land grant, but later developers marked off a plot of land known as the Tejunga Park, or the Tujunga Park, Tract. The name Tujunga is assumed to have meant "old woman's place" in the extinct Tongva language, where Tuhu "old woman" is a term for Mother Earth in Tongva mythology.

Tujunga's 1,500-foot elevation and geographic isolation from the San Fernando Valley and the Los Angeles Basin freed it from some of the air pollution that was a problem in many other parts of Greater Los Angeles. Because of this, it attracted many asthmatics early on. Coronet magazine once called Tujunga "the most healthy place in the world." In 1929, the Tujunga City Council set policy to establish zones where "sanitariums and other institutions for the care of tubercular patients" could be established.

Tujunga was consolidated by the city of Los Angeles on March 8, 1932, but only after the third election.^*

Historical Notes

The community of Girard is identified in the center-left of photo near the intersection of the State Highway and Topanga Canyon. In 1945 it became known as Woodland Hills.^*

Originally called Zelzah, the town that we call Northridge today was renamed North Los Angeles on July 1, 1929. In 1938, this area of the San Fernando Valley was renamed Northridge Village. Few evidences of the "village" remain.#^^#

The community of Granada was founded in 1926.  The “Hills” was added 15 years later in 1941.^*

The Ventura Freeway would not be completed across the San Fernando Valley until 1960.^

Historical Notes

The Sepulveda Tunnel opened on September 27, 1930.  Until then, the Sepulveda Pass consisted of just a dirt road and some trails.  Most of the traffic between the Valley and the city moved over Cahuenga Pass and narrow passages like Laurel Canyon and Beverly Glen.^^#*

Historical Notes

Sepulveda Pass was paved and became a state highway route in 1935.^^#*

Historical Notes

Prior to incorporation in 1976, La Cañada and Flintridge were two distinct communities. Flintridge was named after Republican Senator and developer Frank Putnam Flint.^

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